Micah Moffett, a quadriplegic since a motorcycle accident in 1991, gets a medical dose of marijuana from licensed caregiver Jay Buzzalini for pain relief and to ease depression. Colorado patients who have state permits to grow and use medical marijuana can be prosecuted under federal law, according to a Supreme Court ruling Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the federal government’s power to prosecute people growing marijuana for medical use even if state laws,
such as Colorado’s, permit it.

The court, in a 6-3 decision based on a
California case, ruled that homegrown
marijuana falls under interstate commerce
and therefore can be regulated by
Congress and the federal government.

While the decision affirmed the legitimacy
and superiority of federal drug
laws, federal authorities in Colorado
said Monday that they don’t consider
the ruling a reason to pursue medical
marijuana users.

“We do not target people who are using
medical marijuana,” said Karen Flow-
ers, spokeswoman for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration
in Denver.

The decision didn’t overturn
the Colorado law, or those in 10
other states, but it left state
health officials and marijuana users
uncertain and apprehensive.

The state health department,
which administers Colorado’s
medical marijuana registry, immediately
asked the state attorney
general “to determine what
impact that decision might have
on the Colorado medical marijuana
program.”

The attorney general’s office
will look into the ramifications,
but “ultimately today’s decision
will not change the status ofmedical
marijuana in Colorado,” said
spokeswoman Kristin Hubbell.

Robert Corry Jr., a Denver lawyer
who has represented medical
marijuana users in conflicts with
police, said he feared the decision
would embolden authorities.

About 668 Coloradans hold certificates
to possess marijuana to
manage pain and other medical
conditions, under a constitutional
amendment passed in 2000.

“We hope that a sense of proportionality
and compassion
will prevail,” Corry said.

Medical marijuana supporters
announced they would hold a rally
at noon Wednesday at the state
Capitol to protest the decision.

The court’s majority marijuana
ruling relied heavily on a 1942
Supreme Court case that held
that the broader wheat market
could be affected by wheat
grown for home consumption.
“One need not have a degree
economics to understand why
nationwide exemption for the
vast quantity of marijuana (or
other drugs) locally cultivated
for personal use (which presumably
would include use by
friends, neighbors, and family
members) may have a substantial
impact on the interstate market
for this extraordinarily popular
substance,” Justice John Paul
Stevens wrote for the majority.

Joining Stevens in the majority
were Justices Anthony
Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer
and Antonin Scalia. Dissenting
were Chief Justice William Rehnquist
and Justices Clarence Thomas
and Sandra Day O’Connor.

“The Court’s definition of economic
activity is breathtaking,”
O’Connor wrote in her dissent.

It defines as economic any activity
involving the production,
distribution, and consumption
commodities.”

The other states that permit
medical marijuana are Montana,
Vermont, California, Oregon,
Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada,
Maryland and Washington.

University of Denver assistant
law professor K.K. DuVivier said
that while the decision’s constitutional
implications are an interesting
turn in the debate over
states’ rights, it probably won’t
have a strong impact locally.

“It doesn’t necessarily change
anything unless the feds want to
out and make this a high priority,”
DuVivier said.

The DEA will not seek Colorado’s
lists of approved medical
marijuana users and will not look
for those users, said Flowers.

The U.S. attorney’s office will
continue to focus on the people
who move large amounts of
drugs, said Jeff Dorschner, a
spokesman for the office.

Officials with the DEA and the
S. attorney’s office said, however,
that if during the course of
another investigation they came
across medical marijuana, they
would have to confiscate it.

That was little comfort to
Doreen Bishop and Micah Moffett,
two Denver residents who
hold state permits to use medical
marijuana. “They have declared
war on the sickest of the
sick,” said Bishop.

“We’re all scared,” she said. “I
don’t know what to do.”

Bishop, who uses marijuana
for chronic pain, said she grows
for herself and several others
who cannot grow their own.

Among them is Moffett. A
quadriplegic since a 1991 motorcycle
accident, Moffett said the
drug eases his pain and his depression,
without the side effects
other medications carry.

He called the Supreme Court
decision “ridiculous.”

Frank Sargent, a retired physician
who led opposition to Colorado’s
law, said he doesn’t expect
the ruling to spark a repeal move.

Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can
reached at 303-820-1930 or
acaldwell@denverpost.com.

Staff writer Karen Augé can be
reached at 303-820-1733 or
kauge@denverpost.com.

Colorado energy regulators on Monday proposed tighter rules for shutting down oil and gas pipelines after a fatal explosion blamed on natural gas leaking from a line that was thought to be out of service but was still connected to a well.